I have a question
I am on this board due to my father that has stage 3 esophageal cancer. And maybe that is quite different than colon. I know that with EC if you wait 6 weeks most likely it will spread in that amount of time. I also know the only way to shrink the cancer in my father is with radiation.
So does my friend's boyfriend's diagnosis and treatment sound normal to you?
Lorie
Comments
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Hi Lorie
It is hard to second guess at this distance, but it does seem odd that pre-op tests (CT and PET scans and colonoscopy) would not have given the surgon a better idea of what would be found.
It is not unusual for there to be a waiting period between surgery and/or chemo or rads, regardless of which is done first. The body must heal.
While waiting I would suggest that your friend's boyfriend get a second opinion regarding what his ture condition is and what options he has. If financially and distance possible he should try for one of the top Cancer centers in the country...Sloan in NY, Hopkins in MD, Andersen in TX, etc.
Hope that he can get some good help.
Marie0 -
right? or wrong? Not sure
right? or wrong? Not sure based on what you have said. Thinking a stage 1, then saying stage 4 is kind of a stretch. I would hope before someone is opened up they would have a better idea. My surgeon refused to even speculate on it, other than it was a 3 or a 4 and she would know more after surgery. Ended up with a 3B, I also have not heard of anyone with colon cancer having chemo first to shrink the tumor. I have heard of radiation for rectal to shrink the tumor before surgery. I have heard of chemo to shrink mets in liver before surgery. But not the colon. Doesn't mean it isn't so, but not the norm. Was the cancer to wide spread, that surgery would have been useless?
Did they say why a 4? Usually this means visual inspection of the lungs and liver, but was that info given to him? The other question, was it a colorectal surgeon who did this or a regular surgeon.
4-6 weeks is pretty standard for healing time before starting chemo. I would recommend that he go more on the 4 week end of it- see an oncologist as soon as he is out of the hospital, get a port in and plan on that 4 week window. I started mine 5 weeks to the day- and my colorectal surgeon made it clear that 4 weeks was her recommendation. Not 4-6, but 4.0 -
Lorie -
Re:
"My friends boyfriend is ......."
All too often, second-hand information is nearly useless,
so the information handed to you already tainted.
Reciting it here, makes it "third-hand info" (not that there's
anything wrong with that). Or, even "fourth hand", since you
don't know if your friend heard it directly from the physician,
or from her boyfriend......
I don't know of any sane physician that would ever provide
a prognosis based on so little information. If your "friend's friend"
has been deemed a stage four, I would very seriously doubt
a physician estimated a six year survival; six months would
be the more likely time frame.
(shhhh, you readers are too loud, settle down!)
Seriously, no prognosis is set in stone, and some of us have
outlived our prognosis by many years! That doesn't mean a
prognosis should be disregarded if one doesn't like the sound
of it; time should be used to get one's life in order, and prepare
oneself and family for the worst...... And plans regarding
the fight for life should be weighed. There are many ways
to fight cancer, but tumors are tumors, and if it's growing fast,
or about to kill an individual, then surgery might be the only
option for survival.
It took me six months to heal well enough to suit the oncologist(s),
but by then, they said chemo might not be beneficial at all.
We are all different, but six weeks for an abdominal wound
to heal sufficiently, is remarkable, if not some sort of a record.
And if one's been recently operated on, a PET scan is nearly
useless, unless the physician enjoys scaring the bejesus out
of patients. Every cell in it's healing stage will more than likely
light up, since each one is uptaking glucose at a rapid rate.
Anyway, the info your getting can not be counted on to be
accurate; It's probably even less accurate than my dialog....
Just sayin'...
So sit tight and wait until things settle down a bit. Being
diagnosed with cancer; being told you are no longer need to
buy items with a lifetime guarantee, can be devastating...
When the dust settles, we go back to (somewhat) normal,
and the entire picture becomes clearer and easier to explain
to others.
Your friend needs more time to digest things.
Stay well and wish for the best,
John0 -
Thank you guysJohn23 said:Lorie -
Re:
"My friends boyfriend is ......."
All too often, second-hand information is nearly useless,
so the information handed to you already tainted.
Reciting it here, makes it "third-hand info" (not that there's
anything wrong with that). Or, even "fourth hand", since you
don't know if your friend heard it directly from the physician,
or from her boyfriend......
I don't know of any sane physician that would ever provide
a prognosis based on so little information. If your "friend's friend"
has been deemed a stage four, I would very seriously doubt
a physician estimated a six year survival; six months would
be the more likely time frame.
(shhhh, you readers are too loud, settle down!)
Seriously, no prognosis is set in stone, and some of us have
outlived our prognosis by many years! That doesn't mean a
prognosis should be disregarded if one doesn't like the sound
of it; time should be used to get one's life in order, and prepare
oneself and family for the worst...... And plans regarding
the fight for life should be weighed. There are many ways
to fight cancer, but tumors are tumors, and if it's growing fast,
or about to kill an individual, then surgery might be the only
option for survival.
It took me six months to heal well enough to suit the oncologist(s),
but by then, they said chemo might not be beneficial at all.
We are all different, but six weeks for an abdominal wound
to heal sufficiently, is remarkable, if not some sort of a record.
And if one's been recently operated on, a PET scan is nearly
useless, unless the physician enjoys scaring the bejesus out
of patients. Every cell in it's healing stage will more than likely
light up, since each one is uptaking glucose at a rapid rate.
Anyway, the info your getting can not be counted on to be
accurate; It's probably even less accurate than my dialog....
Just sayin'...
So sit tight and wait until things settle down a bit. Being
diagnosed with cancer; being told you are no longer need to
buy items with a lifetime guarantee, can be devastating...
When the dust settles, we go back to (somewhat) normal,
and the entire picture becomes clearer and easier to explain
to others.
Your friend needs more time to digest things.
Stay well and wish for the best,
John
Yes I am getting second hand info. My friend talks to her boyfriend and then talks to me.
I know she said when it was first discovered through a colonoscopy they had him go into the hospital. This in not a top hospital nor is it a cancer hospital like they have in the Univeristy of Chicago or others, but it's close to his house. His doctor is a regular oncologist, not specialized in colon cancer and doesn't have a stellar education at any of the best universities, and he interened at a hospital that's passable but certainly not anything of note. Your standard, small hospital.
At first he told his girlfriend that the doctor was pretty sure it was stage 1 with a CAT scan. He had him thinking it would be a relatively simple surgery and they both were happy. When he woke up, they told him it was tumor was too big to remove so they closed him up. The doctor told him at the time, pre PET scan that it was stage 4 but it wasn't in any of the other organs. My girlfriend told me that her boyfriend is to wait 6 weeks, then start chemo for the cancer and then get surgery when it shrinks. They were both very happy to here this prognosis. Again, this is before the PET scan.
From what I know is stage 4 means mets. And a 6 year lifespan seems way too long for that prognosis, prior to a surgical removal.
That is all I know and I was wondering if anyone else has gone through anything similar.0 -
hi lorie,Lorie B said:Thank you guys
Yes I am getting second hand info. My friend talks to her boyfriend and then talks to me.
I know she said when it was first discovered through a colonoscopy they had him go into the hospital. This in not a top hospital nor is it a cancer hospital like they have in the Univeristy of Chicago or others, but it's close to his house. His doctor is a regular oncologist, not specialized in colon cancer and doesn't have a stellar education at any of the best universities, and he interened at a hospital that's passable but certainly not anything of note. Your standard, small hospital.
At first he told his girlfriend that the doctor was pretty sure it was stage 1 with a CAT scan. He had him thinking it would be a relatively simple surgery and they both were happy. When he woke up, they told him it was tumor was too big to remove so they closed him up. The doctor told him at the time, pre PET scan that it was stage 4 but it wasn't in any of the other organs. My girlfriend told me that her boyfriend is to wait 6 weeks, then start chemo for the cancer and then get surgery when it shrinks. They were both very happy to here this prognosis. Again, this is before the PET scan.
From what I know is stage 4 means mets. And a 6 year lifespan seems way too long for that prognosis, prior to a surgical removal.
That is all I know and I was wondering if anyone else has gone through anything similar.
initially i was stage3 with a t3n1m0 using tnm classification, now after another ct scan i was upgraded to t4n1m0. getting a top class surgeon may help. i had one and so far so good.
hugs,
pete0 -
Sounds a bit odd
Like John mentioned, sometimes when you get info that's been passed on and on it's like that Post Office game where one person says something, then it gets passed on to others then at the end it's totally different.
That being aside, as others mentioned the body needs some time to heal before starting chemo. I'm still a bit surprised at the staging difference...I did chemo first, then surgery second and it was the way to go (for me). The chemo shrunk the tumors so they became operable.
Colon cancer can be very slow growing unlike esophageal cancer.
-phil0 -
PhilPhillieG said:Sounds a bit odd
Like John mentioned, sometimes when you get info that's been passed on and on it's like that Post Office game where one person says something, then it gets passed on to others then at the end it's totally different.
That being aside, as others mentioned the body needs some time to heal before starting chemo. I'm still a bit surprised at the staging difference...I did chemo first, then surgery second and it was the way to go (for me). The chemo shrunk the tumors so they became operable.
Colon cancer can be very slow growing unlike esophageal cancer.
-phil
Thank you. That was the question I was most looking for to answer. In Esophageal they say only radiation shrinks the tumors, not chemo. I was worried that it was the same in colon cancer. If chemo does shrink the tumor than it's hopefully not going to get worse by the time they do surgery, so they can in fact do surgery and are not just stringing this poor guy along.
Lorie0
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